Matplotlib for Python Developers

Sandro Tosi

November 2009

308 pages

9 hours 14 minutes

Python developers who want to learn Matplotlib need look no further. This book covers it all with a practical approach including lots of code and images. Take this chance to learn 2D plotting through real-world examples.

Exploit the interactive computing environment of IPython to its fullest in collaboration with Matplotlib

Learn line and point styles and master their customization, customization of axis ticks, and develop several plot types available in Matplotlib, such as histograms, bars, pie charts, polar charts, and so on

Get comfortable with Glade—a RAD tool—to quickly design a GUI for GTK+ and embed Matplotlib into it

Make the most of Matplotlib within the wxWidgets framework, in particular using the wxPython bindings and design a GUI with wxGlade

Use the Qt Designer to draw a simple GUI and refer it to your Python code to fit your needs

Expose Matplotlib on the Web using CGI (through Apache mod_cgi), mod_python, Django, and Pylons in no time at all

Profit from the real-world examples by simply following the stream—identify the data source, elaborate the data and generate the resulting plot

About

Providing appealing plots and graphs is an essential part of various fields such as scientific research, data analysis, and so on. Matplotlib, the Python 2D plotting library, is used to produce publication-quality figures in a variety of hardcopy formats and interactive environments across platforms. This book explains creating various plots, histograms, power spectra, bar charts, error charts, scatter-plots and much more using the powerful Matplotlib library to get impressive out-of-the-box results.

This book gives you a comprehensive tour of the key features of the Matplotlib Python 2D plotting library, right from the simplest concepts to the most advanced topics. You will discover how easy it is to produce professional-quality plots when you have this book to hand.

The book introduces the library in steps. First come the basics: introducing what the library is, its important prerequisites (and terminology), installing and configuring Matplotlib, and going through simple plots such as lines, grids, axes, and charts. Then we start with some introductory examples, and move ahead by discussing the various programming styles that Matplotlib allows, and several key features.

Further, the book presents an important section on embedding applications. You will be introduced to three of the best known GUI libraries—GTK+, Qt, and wxWidgets—and presented with the steps to implement to include Matplotlib in an application written using each of them. You will learn through an incremental approach: from a simple example that presents the peculiarities of the GUI library, to more complex ones, using GUI designer tools.

Because the Web permeates all of our activities, a part of the book is dedicated to showing how Matplotlib can be used in a web environment, and another section focuses on using Matplotlib with common Python web frameworks, namely, Pylons and Django. Last, but not least, you will go through real-world examples, where you will see some real situations in which you can use Matplotlib.

Features

Create high quality 2D plots by using Matplotlib productively

Incremental introduction to Matplotlib, from the ground up to advanced levels

Embed Matplotlib in GTK+, Qt, and wxWidgets applications as well as web sites to utilize them in Python applications

Deploy Matplotlib in web applications and expose it on the Web using popular web frameworks such as Pylons and Django

Get to grips with hands-on code and complete realistic case study examples along with highly informative plot screenshots

Authors

Sandro Tosi

Sandro Tosi is a Debian Developer, Open Source evangelist, and Python enthusiast. After completing a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Firenze, he worked as a consultant for an energy multinational as System Analyst and EAI Architect, and now works as System Engineer for one of the biggest and most innovative Italian Internet companies.

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